Infosys & ExxonMobil: Scaling Sustainable AI Data Centres

The escalating energy footprint of AI infrastructure has emerged as a pressing sustainability challenge, prompting an unexpected alliance between technology and traditional energy sectors to pioneer greener cooling solutions.

Indian IT and consulting firm Infosys has joined forces with US oil and gas company ExxonMobil in an expanded collaboration announced on 12 February 2025, aimed at developing and deploying liquid immersion cooling systems for AI and high-performance computing data centres.

The partnership could represent a significant step towards reducing the environmental impact of digital infrastructure as computational demands continue to surge.

AI for sustainable operations

At the heart of this initiative lies ExxonMobil's proprietary dielectric liquid, a non-conductive fluid designed to cool server hardware through direct immersion.

This approach could potentially eliminate the need for energy-intensive air conditioning systems that currently underpin global data centre operations, offering a pathway to substantially lower carbon emissions from computing infrastructure.

For ExxonMobil, this collaboration signals a strategic pivot towards sustainable applications of its chemical expertise, diversifying beyond hydrocarbons at a time when digital infrastructure presents new environmental challenges requiring innovative solutions.

Infosys is deploying two of its flagship platforms to drive the initiative's environmental objectives.

Infosys Topaz, the company's generative AI-focused suite, will optimise cooling operations in real time, managing predictive maintenance and dynamic energy management across data centre environments to minimise waste and maximise efficiency.

Meanwhile, Infosys Cobalt will support the large-scale deployment of these cooling solutions, managing integration across cloud and on-premises infrastructure.

This combination of AI-driven operational intelligence with cloud-based deployment capabilities reflects how technology providers are evolving from system integrators to active participants in engineering more sustainable infrastructure solutions.

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Addressing data centre energy consumption

Temperature regulation typically accounts for 40% to 50% of total data centre energy consumption, according to Iceotope.

Conventional cooling relies on industrial-scale chillers and air conditioning units that draw enormous amounts of power, contributing significantly to the carbon footprint of digital operations.

Immersion cooling technologies are emerging as more environmentally responsible alternatives.

For AI workloads specifically, which depend on densely packed GPU clusters operating at high sustained power densities, the environmental case for immersion cooling has strengthened considerably as chip thermal design power continues rising.

Ashiss Kumar Dash, EVP & Global Head for Services, Utilities, Resources, Energy & Enterprise Sustainability at Infosys, sees his firm's collaboration with Exxon terms of measurable outcomes rather than aspirational targets.

"Our expanded collaboration with ExxonMobil marks a pivotal step in scaling next-generation solutions," he says.

"By leveraging Infosys Topaz for real-time AI-driven optimisation and Infosys Cobalt for secure, scalable cloud deployment with ExxonMobil's advanced energy expertise, we are addressing the urgent need for more efficient high-performance digital infrastructure.

"This collaboration has the potential to deliver measurable outcomes by reducing data centre energy costs and carbon emissions, while empowering enterprises to scale responsibly and meet the demands of an AI-powered future."

This shift towards liquid cooling could mean substantial reductions in both energy costs and carbon emissions, addressing the urgent sustainability challenges posed by AI's exponential growth.

Bridging energy and digital futures

The collaboration targets a diverse range of potential clients, including hyperscalers, global enterprises and public sector organisations across financial services, telecommunications, manufacturing, energy and government sectors, all of which face mounting pressure to reduce their environmental impact.

Alistair Westwood, who is Global Marketing Manager at ExxonMobil's Product Solutions wing, sees the firm's work with Infosys as a new means of applying the team's expertise.

"This collaboration reflects our commitment to innovation by allowing us to apply our energy and thermal management expertise to the evolving landscape of digital infrastructure," he explains.

"Infosys' suite of AI and digital services is enabling us to pilot and adopt infrastructure that is smarter, efficient and more resilient."

The announcement arrives amid growing commercial interest in sustainable cooling solutions.

In the coming years, numerous vendors, from start-ups to established infrastructure providers like Vertiv and Schneider Electric, are competing in what analysts expect could become a multi-billion-dollar market focused on greener data centre operations.

Neither company has disclosed financial terms, specific performance targets or deployment timelines for the expanded collaboration.

However, the partnership appears to reflect a broader recognition that the energy and digital infrastructure sectors must work together to address sustainability challenges, as AI's power consumption forces data centre operators to fundamentally rethink the environmental assumptions underlying their facilities.

This initiative could potentially demonstrate how traditional energy companies can apply their technical expertise to support the transition towards more sustainable digital infrastructure, while technology firms leverage AI capabilities to optimise resource efficiency and reduce environmental impact at scale.